


gravity don't mean too much

by overcapitalized



Series: off to find another way [3]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Space, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2020-01-04 09:13:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18340643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/overcapitalized/pseuds/overcapitalized
Summary: Vanya knows, or at least should have by now, that with Dad, everything is a test. (aka: Vanya goes to the moon.)~An Umbrella Academy AU where they all have each other's jobs.





	gravity don't mean too much

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to thedeserttree for helping edit this and also putting up with my nonsense. All remaining mistakes are my own to capture. If you have the addresses of these individuals, please contact the slightly deranged author.
> 
> Yes, I _did_ research drugs for three hours for two lines of fic. I accept my laurels, but they are already rotted.

When Dad told Vanya that she wasn’t ordinary, she was on a space shuttle two thirds of the way to the moon.

“Incredibly powerful and volatile abilities...unable to learn control as a child…fast-acting medication, sedates you so you can’t use your powers...”

And, as much as every part of her that could still feel feelings wanted to cry, her brain went through the facts. It wasn’t natural to her, wasn’t endemic, like it was that Allison knew the best smile to break your heart with and Five knew the precise pitch of every note in a symphony. It was learned, practised and carefully calibrated. It was anathema to the instincts that trickled in, but even a river would change course with enough pressure.

**Fact: Vanya had been on sedatives since she was 9.**

**Fact: Alprazolam was a benzodiazepine, most commonly used to treat anxiety disorders.**

**Fact: Dad had told her not to take her last dosage of meds.**

Vanya could hear a metallic thrum. The shuttle was shuddering, trembling at the seams and the bulk and the very nuts and bolts. Vanya felt like a rattle in a baby’s hands, like her brain was knocking about inside her skull, like every mental dam was shaking apart.

For the first time in years, Vanya was furious. Vanya was relieved. _Vanya had powers._

Dad was still going on, though she couldn’t- _didn’t want to_ hear a word, “...couldn’t find a suitable way to channel emotion…had Three use her powers to make you forget...”

She felt like an ocean. Like her usual paltry puddle of emotion was deep enough to drown in. Like the furious tide, thwarted in her nature and design. But. And with Dad there was always the but.

**Fact: The shuttle was still trembling like a leaf in a storm. The vibrations had become groans of stressed steel. The fate of the life support equipment and the electric circuitry was uncertain.**

**Fact: This was a test.**

**Fact: Failure meant certain death. _Failure was not an option._**

She assessed her internal landscape, tried to plug the geysers of fury, the ocean floor volcanoes, the terribly orderly coming of the tsunami. It was trying to stop the tide with cupped palms. She was going to fail and she was going to die here. In the cavern of space, after her father had put her head underwater and told her to swim.

But habit was more powerful than effort. Habitually, she breathed deeply. Like she had done the first time she had shown Dad her improved schmantics. Half her ideas he had dissected and ripped to shreds, the other half he relentlessly interrogated and almost begrudgingly accepted. It was the first thing her father gave her that she had made her own. The memory made her breathe easier. It gave the fury something to crash against.

Slowly, somehow, she came to.

The space shuttle wasn’t trembling anymore, not like it had when she was doing...something to it with her powers. The video message was still on. Dad looked almost proud.

“Excellent, Number Seven. I was certain you had attained the control to master yourself. Now, when you land, you must follow a regular training regimen...”

And so on it went. Vanya thought she should be surprised, maybe hurt by how quickly Dad had moved on from her near death. And she was both, but only a little.

This was the man who had sent his six adopted children to fight criminals, who had named them in numbers and trained them instead of saying goodnights and “I love you”’s.

Dad only ever wanted them to be better. It's just that the only way he knew how was breaking them till they fixed themselves stronger.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this! Comment, if you like.


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